Various embodiments are generally directed to a method and apparatus associated with operating a first memory device with multiple interfaces and a status register. In some embodiments, a first interface is engaged by a host. A memory device that has a plurality of memory cells comprised of at least a magnetic tunneling junction and a spin polarizing magnetic material is connected to a second interface. A status register is maintained by logging at least an error or busy signal during data transfer operations through the first and second interfaces.
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11. An apparatus comprising a first memory device comprising a first interface configured to engage a host, a second interface configured to connect to a second memory device, and at least a third interface capable of connecting to at least a third memory device, wherein the second memory device comprises a plurality of memory cells, and a control circuit configured to compare multiple resistance distributions and sub-divide the plurality of memory cells into blocks of memory cells in response to a global reference voltage not correctly identifying logic states for each memory cell in the plurality of memory cells, the control circuit configured to maintain a status register by logging at least an error or busy signal during data transfer operations.
1. A method comprising:
engaging a first interface with a host, the first interface transfers data through a serial link between the host and a memory controller;
connecting a memory device with a plurality of memory cells to a second interface;
obtaining multiple resistance distributions for each memory cell with a first test signal in response to the plurality of memory cells written to a first logic a state and a second test signal in response to the plurality of memory cells written to a different second logic state;
logging at least an error or busy signal in a status register during data transfer operations through the first and second interfaces; and
characterizing a voltage reference for at least a first and second memory cell by comparing the multiple resistance distributions.
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Data storage devices generally operate to store and retrieve data in a fast and efficient manner. Some storage devices take the form of a memory card that utilizes memory cells to provide various external functions. The Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) was formed to standardize computer memory cards. The PCMCIA provides physical specifications for three types of cards, specifically differing in thickness.
As will be appreciated, a computer memory card has limited physical space and power availability. An increased variety of available computer memory technologies has created a need to improve the compatibilities of existing technology while not impeding the inherent physical space and power limitations of standardized PC Cards. Moreover, an ever expanding mobile technology culture has increased the need for faster and more reliable computer memory technologies that have various mobile compatibilities.
In these and other types of data storage devices, it is often desirable to improve efficiency and accuracy, particularly with regard to reading data from a computer memory device capable of broad compatibility.
Various embodiments of the present invention are generally directed to a method and apparatus associated with a memory device with multiple interfaces and a status register.
In accordance with various embodiments, the first memory device has multiple interfaces configured to engage a host and at least a second memory device comprising a plurality of memory cells comprised of at least a magnetic tunneling junction and a spin polarizing magnetic material. The first memory device maintains a status register in some embodiments by logging at least an error or busy signal during data transfer operations.
These and various other features and advantages which characterize the various embodiments of the present invention can be understood in view of the following detailed discussion and the accompanying drawings.
Top level control of the device 100 is carried out by a suitable controller 102, which may be a programmable or hardware based microcontroller. The controller 102 communicates with a host device via a controller interface (I/F) circuit 104 and a host I/F circuit 106. Local storage of requisite commands, programming, operational data, etc. is provided via random access memory (RAM) 108 and read-only memory (ROM) 110. A buffer 112 serves to temporarily store input write data from the host device and readback data pending transfer to the host device.
A memory space is shown at 114 to comprise a number of memory arrays 116 (denoted Array 0-N), although it will be appreciated that a single array can be utilized as desired. Each array 116 comprises a block of semiconductor memory of selected storage capacity. Communications between the controller 102 and the memory space 114 are coordinated via a memory (MEM) I/F 118. As desired, on-the-fly error detection and correction (EDC) encoding and decoding operations are carried out during data transfers by way of an EDC block 120.
While not limiting, in some embodiments the various circuits depicted in
Any number of data storage and transfer protocols can be utilized, such as logical block addressing (LBAS) whereby data are arranged and stored in fixed-size blocks (such as 512 bytes of user data plus overhead bytes for ECC, sparing, header information, etc). Host commands can be issued in terms of LBAs, and the device 100 can carry out a corresponding LBA-to-PBA (physical block address) conversion to identify and service the associated locations at which the data are to be stored or retrieved.
The actual configurations of the cells and the access lines thereto will depend on the requirements of a given application. Generally, however, it will be appreciated that the various control lines will generally include enable lines that selectively enable and disable the respective writing and reading of the value(s) of the individual cells.
Control logic 126 receives and transfers data, addressing information and control/status values along multi-line bus paths 128, 130 and 132, respectively. X and Y decoding circuitry 134, 136 provide appropriate switching and other functions to access the appropriate cells 124. A write circuit 138 represents circuitry elements that operate to carry out write operations to write data to the cells 124, and a read circuit 140 correspondingly operates to obtain readback data from the cells 124. Local buffering of transferred data and other values can be provided via one or more local registers 144. At this point it will be appreciated that the circuitry of
Data are written to the respective memory cells 124 as generally depicted in
As explained below, in some embodiments the memory cell 124 takes a modified STRAM configuration, in which case the write power source 146 is characterized as a current driver connected through a memory cell 124 to a suitable reference node 148, such as ground. The write power source 146 provides a stream of power that is spin polarized by moving through a magnetic material in the memory cell 124. The resulting rotation of the polarized spins creates a torque that changes the magnetic moment of the memory cell 124.
Depending on the magnetic moment, the cell 124 may take either a relatively low resistance (RL) or a relatively high resistance (RH). While not limiting, exemplary RL values may be in the range of about 100 ohms (Ω) or so, whereas exemplary RH values may be in the range of about 100KΩ or so Other resistive memory type configurations (e.g., RRAMS) are supplied with a suitable voltage or other input to similarly provide respective RL and RH values. These values are retained by the respective cells until such time that the state is changed by a subsequent write operation. While not limiting, in the present example it is contemplated that a high resistance value (RH) denotes storage of a logical 1 by the cell 124, and a low resistance value (RL) denotes storage of a logical 0.
The logical bit value(s) stored by each cell 124 can be determined in a manner such as illustrated by
The reference voltage VREF can be selected from various embodiments such that the voltage drop VMC across the memory cell 124 will be lower than the VREF value when the resistance of the cell is set to RL, and will be higher than the VREF value when the resistance of the cell is set to RH. In this way, the output voltage level of the comparator 154 will indicate the logical bit value (0 or 1) stored by the memory cell 124.
An alternate memory cell structure is shown in
The operational relationship between multiple memory devices is generally shown in
Further, the memory modules 190 can be operated individually or in conjunction with other modules to provide the first memory device 176 with a various amount of functional capacity. It should be noted that each of the second memory devices 186 can comprise memory modules 190 of different memory technologies. For example, one second memory device 186 can utilize spin-torque transfer random access memory technology while another second memory device 186 can utilize resistive random access memory technology. That is, each memory module 190 can be a single type of memory, such as STRAM, but memory modules of differing memories can be implemented into the same memory device.
The first memory device 176 includes, in various embodiments, control circuitry capable of controlling the functions of the device 176. The control circuitry can comprise a number of microprocessors 192, read only memory (ROM), and power converter. Alternatively, the ROM can be implemented into a processor as can be appreciated by one skilled in the art.
An operational interaction between the first memory device 176 and a second memory device 186 is generally illustrated in
In some embodiments, the memory interface 184 of the first memory device 176 can be configured to include a non-volatile memory controller to aid in the efficiency and accuracy of memory device data management. In addition, the control circuitry of the first memory device 176 can comprise a controller that allows direct memory access (DMA) connection to a main memory. The main memory can comprise various memory technologies including, but not limited to, DRAM, SRAM, FLASH, ROM, STRAM, RRAM, and SSD. Likewise, the memory modules 190 of the second memory device 186 can utilize various memory technologies such as DRAM, SRAM, FLASH, ROM, STRAM, RRAM, and SSD. However, one embodiment of the present invention includes at least one memory module 190 utilizing spin polarizing material and an MTJ (158 and 160 of
The flow diagram of
In one embodiment, a resistance value distribution is produced by repetitively reading each cell in turn using different voltage reference values that successively change in magnitude, and monitoring the output of a sense amplifier. The resistance of the cell can be correlated to the reference voltage at which the output of the sense amplifier changes state.
For example, if the cell is initially written to a logic state of 0, the resistance of the cell will be relatively low (RL), and the voltage drop thereacross will also be relatively low for a given sense current. Use of an initial, relatively high voltage reference value will provide an output of 0 from the sense amplifier. Incrementally decreasing the reference voltage will eventually provide a reference value below the voltage drop across the cell, at which point the output of the sense amplifier (154 of
This reference value can be used as an indication of the actual RL resistance of the cell; that is, the resistance RL will be substantially equal to the reference value divided by the sense current. Because of this proportionality, the resistance of the cell can be “read” merely by detecting the corresponding transition reference voltage, irrespective of whether the actual resistance of the cell is specifically calculated therefrom.
Once low resistance reference values have been obtained for all of the cells, the cells are written to a logic state of 1 and the foregoing process is repeated (the initial reference values and direction of sweeping may be the same, or may be different as desired). It will be appreciated that the foregoing example is merely illustrative and any number of sensing techniques can be used to determine the respective distributions through the optimization process of step 204.
The optimization of the voltage reference in step 204 then proceeds to compare a low resistance maximum value obtained from the low resistance distribution to a high resistance minimum value obtained from the high resistance distribution. A differentiation between resistance distributions is indicated by having the high resistance minimum being greater than the low resistance maximum. An embodiment of the present invention stores the voltage reference for the block of memory in a table at step 206 if the high resistance minimum is greater than the low resistance maximum. However if the high resistance minimum is less than the low resistance maximum, there will be an overlap in the distributions, so the use of a single global reference value may not correctly identify the logic state of all cells. In such case, the memory block will be sub-divided in step 208.
The sub-divide operation of step 208 creates extra table entries to accommodate the sub-division of blocks in step 208. The sub-division of blocks divides the previous memory block into predetermined smaller block sizes. Once the memory blocks are divided, the optimization of the extra memory cells is entered and operated.
It should be noted that the sub-division of memory block in step 208 likely occurs in a high percentage of voltage reference characterization 200 due to the fact that a single voltage reference for a plurality of memory cells will often not provide accurate logical state reading. Therefore, the sub-division of memory cells 208 will cycle and continue to sub-divide the memory blocks until optimal differentiation of resistance distributions are obtained. Thus, it is recognized that the voltage reference characterization 200 can produce a single voltage reference or a voltage reference for every bit in a memory array as necessary.
At the conclusion of either the write or read command, any errors are written to the status register in step 232. At step 234, a “not busy” status is written to the status register once the command and error functions are completed. A “not busy” status is also written to the status register if a command received is not a memory command from step 216. Finally, the status registry operation 210 is cycled at the completion of step 234 with the fetching of a new command.
Other advantages of the various embodiments presented herein will readily occur to the skilled artisan in view of the present disclosure. For example a variety of configurations of memory can be constructed and controlled to efficiently and accurately manage data. Moreover, computer memory devices can optimize performance by using voltage reference values. The voltage reference values can be assigned to groups of cells in any convenient manner, whether at the array level, individual block level, at the sector level, at the word line level, etc. It will further be appreciated that groups of cells for a given reference value can be physically discontinuous and hence non-adjacent to one another. These and other considerations can be readily implemented depending on the requirements of a given application.
It is to be understood that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of various embodiments of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of various embodiments of the invention, this detailed description is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of structure and arrangements of parts within the principles of the present invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
Li, Hai, Lu, Yong, Chen, Yiran, Liu, Harry Hongyue, Reed, Daniel S., Bowman, Rod V.
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